Nauvoo

After getting home so late from Asheville we just wanted some time at home. However, we had a previously planned trip to Nauvoo, IL. Nauvoo is a historic city where the early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) lived for a time before persecutions became too much and they made their way across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. We were just glad the trip didn’t involve an airport and we had the ability to stop along the way. We drove about 5 hours to Keokuk, IA where we met Bryan’s friend Jared and his wife Arin who drove from Kansas City, MO. They have a baby boy, Mason, who is one month older than Brooklyn.

We were supposed to have been staying with them in the Holiday INN Express hotel. It has a nice breakfast, pool, etc. The price for those days was $75.00 night (not at all bad). Well, I had never heard of Keokuk, IA and assumed it was a very small town and honestly, how many hotels are going to be there? My Priceline.com lightbulb came on in my head one night. I decided that I would bid $40.00 for a hotel in Keokuk, IA for those days. Being the only hotel in town I would get to stay at the Holiday Inn Express for half the price of my friend. I placed my bid, pressed enter, and after a couple of seconds the screen said something to the effect of: “Congratulations, your bid of $40.00 has been accepted!!!” I was so excited to tell everyone. Of course, not more than a couple seconds later the itinerary popped up on the screen. You can imagine my despair when I realized we would be staying at the SUPER 8 hotel in Keokuk, IA!!!! Really?!?!?! There are actually other hotels in this town!?!!? I called Molly and showed her the nice pictures on the Super 8 website and tried to sell the hotel to her. She said: “Lets just stay with them at the Holiday Inn Express.” I must have had some look on my face because she immediately said: “You pricelined it didn’t you!!!???” Actually the hotel wasn’t too bad for what little time we spent there.

That first night we went to dinner and planned the next couple of days with the friends. The next morning we left at 7am to head to Nauvoo. We went to the Welcome Center next to the temple. Jared and Arin went to the temple while we babysat Brooklyn and Mason and then we switched and Molly and I were able to go to the temple. What an amazing place. To think of the history and sacrifice. I can’t wait to go back. After getting lunch we went to many of the sites including the Browning Gun shop (who would have guessed a Mormon would found such a famous gun company), the blacksmith shop (they made wedding rings out of horseshoe nails back in the day so Bryan got one of them being that he left his wedding ring at home!!!), walked the Trail of Hope to the Mississippi River, and more. The plan was to stay and see a couple shows that night but the kids were acting up. We went back to the hotel for dinner and games.

The next morning we went to Carthage Jail (where Joseph Smith was killed by a mob) then drove back to Nauvoo to see more of the sites including the brick making shop, pharmacy (the pharmacist was also the dentist and doctor and had some scary tools for pulling teeth), the visitor center, the bakery (had a really good gingerbread cookie) and walked around. That last evening we went to a decent Mexican restaurant in Keokuk before playing games again and saying goodbye.

On the drive home we again stopped in Springfield, IL to see the Abraham Lincoln Tomb and to eat lunch in a park nearby so Brooklyn could get out of the car for a little bit. The trip was a lot of fun. If you are a member of the church or not, Nauvoo is a really special place to visit and learn about life in the mid 1800s. You really learn to appreciate how much we have now in the way of technology and freedom.